Division
by amcuckoo
Summary: In the aftermath of Kyuubi's attack Konoha is struggling to rebuild. Another threat looms in the distance. Will Kakashi and Gai be able to overcome their latest challenges? Can they let go of their expectations and work together undercover?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer**: I do not own the characters from Naruto, I'm just playing with them.

A bird clawing at his window was what woke him.

Kakashi glared at it, immediately alert. It was only just past dawn and a faint pink light was just starting to clarify the rather spartan set-up of his apartment. He pushed himself out of bed and on to his feet then with practised silence, walked the four paces to his window. He snatched the small scroll from the bird and carelessly waved his hand in a shooing gesture. The bird flew away.

_Summons 020119 at loc T 0500_

Oh great, he furrowed his brow at the official message. It had been a while since he'd been summoned. He almost didn't recognize his operation number. The location he knew well though. He'd had rounds and rounds of ANBU guard duty for _location T_ in the past month. That was the Hokage tower.

Well that was an offensively early start to his morning, but in truth he was glad for it. He walked over to his bathroom, the only separate room in his apartment. He ran some water and splashed it on his face, turned off the tap and scrubbed the sleep away a bit.

He looked in the mirror and frowned.

He'd been having the same awful dream he had off and on for the past year.

And it showed in his face. His eyes both had dark hollows underneath them, and when he looked into his own eye the blood vessels around the outsides had become very visible giving his eye an unhealthy pinkish tinge.

It was always the same. It was sixty seconds of his life burned into his mind on repeat. Like there was something he missed, some way that it could have been different, or some way that he could have saved her.

And it always ended the same way, with the feeling of her heart stopping against the back of his wrist as she smiled at him.

Kakashi began to strap various basic weapons to himself to block out the rest of the specters in his mind.

It didn't last long.

While boiling water for tea, Kakashi let his mind wander. He was making guesses as to what he was being called in for.

Probably a mission.

More than likely it would be a mission involving some extensive stealth. Recently he'd been doing a lot of high profile assassinations. Those were, surprisingly, some of the easier missions. Be silent, be invisible, and leave no trace. Toxins in a hypodermic then a prominent political opponent or dissident expires in their sleep. No longer a problem for the one who hired him.

He liked them because they were clean.

Kakashi did not consider himself to be fastidious by any means, but he was clean. Dirt was uncomfortable. Blood was, too… even more so. If a mission could be accomplished by means of poison and espionage then it was much simpler to deal with after.

It was, after all, much easier to slip away when he wasn't covered in gore.

Kakashi decided it was a mission like this one. Infiltrate, gather intelligence, and then terminate. Simple.

Though to be summoned so early, it could really be anything.

He fixed the forehead protector over Obito's eye and took a moment to stare at his right hand.

Then another moment to wonder if it would ever be free from Rin's blood.

It was getting close to his 5 a.m. summons time, so he left his apartment and started heading out the slow way.

Hoping, even though he didn't hope, that a walk in the brisk air would clear his mind.

….

The Hokage had been busier than usual in the past few weeks since the destruction of Kyuubi. This morning he had started at the crack of dawn, having woken stiff and sore in his chair. The first item he'd seen had been a note from Kiri.

He'd been corresponding fervently with the young Mizukage, only recently elected to her position after the fall of her predecessor mere months ago. There were undue stirrings in her village, and she felt it time to act upon their shared suspicions.

It was nearing 5 when a gentle breeze swirled through his office and a figure appeared in the centre of the room, tightly crouched. The figure stood up and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Maa… Hokage-sama, you summoned me?"

Hiruzen raised his eyebrow; really, this particularly well accomplished shinobi did not need to use his title in privacy. Then again, this was Kakashi. It was to be expected that he'd follow orders like his title, silly though they may be. Even if his late teammates and sensei had melted off some of his steely and programmed behaviour, he'd always be a stickler for rules.

"How many times have I told you to knock?"

The young man's eye curved into a false smile. He noted that Kakashi still looked exhausted, even though he'd returned from his last mission more than four days ago. Some things, no matter how they must, never did change.

The reinstated third Hokage pulled and shuffled some papers on his haphazardly organized desk. The paperwork mantra he followed was simple: if it's done, it's filed away. If it's not done, it's on the desk.

The mountains of papers indicated the Hokage offices current state of affairs.

He eventually found the one he was looking for, in a file with many papers spilling out the sides and sticky-notes. There was a prominent stain on the front of the folder, probably from tea, but one could never be certain. Late nights needed to be spiced up somehow and even the best Hokages were not immune to the temptress of booze.

Sarutobi felt, on many occasions, that this particular mission had called for booze. Lots of it.

Kakashi was standing in the centre of his office, patiently, ever obeisant and waiting.

He flipped open the beat up file. In it was a collection of notes started years ago, from before the time of the 3rd shinobi wars. He pulled out a worn section with a picture and some notes.

"This is your target, Miyagi Hiroto" he said, passing the papers to Kakashi.

He always hated this part.

Kakashi was a fast reader; he found the relevant information quickly. This guy seemed to be the head of something. He was connected to many crimes, yet remained untarnished by a criminal record of his own. He wasn't seen outside of his home, except for in bars. The man was in his mid-thirties and had an unhealthy habit for partying…with younger men. Oh. So that's how he was to pin him. There was no noticeable change in Kakashi's demeanor, but Sarutobi had watched him long enough to catch the slight stiffening in is posture.

"You know what you have to do, Kakashi."

He nodded.

"This is different from the other missions like this you've done. It will take longer," he noted, "Miyagi is a known weapons dealer in the Mist. There have been stirrings there of late. Myself and your late sensei had kept an eye on them for the better part of the last decade, and now it's coming to a head. They are building up for something and we need to know what. If you can peg Miyagi for breaking with our alliance agreements with Kirigakure, you are to terminate him."

"I understand," he inclined his head and reached for the mission directives on the desk.

"I'm sending you with back up."

Kakashi stilled mid-reach and fell silent, but the look in his visible eye was calculating.

"It's no comment on your success rate, Kakashi."

"Can you spare me a team with the rebuilding in progress?" Kakashi asked pointedly.

"Frankly, no," the Third gave him a hard look, "But then I feel that I must."

Confused, Kakashi said, "I apologize if this is out of order, but why?"

The Hokage pinched the bridge of his nose as if to ward off an oncoming headache. He looked grim, and damn near shouted:

"Because of that damned eye!"

That shut up any protest the younger nin may have had.

Sarutobi sighed and walked towards Kakashi. He looked him in the eye, "Kakashi, I know that when Rin passed most unfortunately," the young shinobi winced, even a year later that was still a raw spot, "you unlocked the Mangekyou Sharingan."

Kakashi gave his best impression of calm. He knew what was coming, but he tried to defend himself anyways. "I have it under control," he said steadily.

"Bullshit—and you know it," the Hokage admonished, then turned away to look out the great window over the slowly rebuilding city.

Kakashi frowned.

"I know this is hard for you to admit, but I've seen your name on the hospital boards too many times as of late. And every time it's for the same damn thing! You'll run yourself dead if you don't get that eye under your control."

Kakashi had no response to that. It was true. Ever since Rin had… well, he'd had it stuck in what he'd come to call Mangekyou mode. It seemed to be overwhelmingly useless. The drain on his chakra was like a molten flow of lava through his optic nerve. It hurt like a bitch, left him spent for days when he tried to use it, and had no variation from the original sharingan he'd mastered.

So he could see where the Third was going with this.

That didn't stop him from feeling slighted.

But Kakashi would not raise such complaints. He was a soldier first and an individual second.

Having left enough of a gap for Kakashi to respond if he'd seen fit, the Third was unsurprised to find no objections from the shinobi. The aging man turned back to his desk and sat down.

"I'm sending you with Gai,"

The third almost smiled at the expression in that lone, dark eye. This was the look that sent the biggest and strongest ninja running. It frequently astonished the man how much could be conveyed through one eye.

"I know you don't like it, but Gai has been doing well on missions like this. If you'd take a break in a while you'd have seen it."

The gentle berating comment was enough to get Kakashi to school his eye back into carefully constructed neutrality.

Judging that his silence would continue, the Third went on, "it will be beneficial to us as well to have the perspective of the working men in Kiri. We do not have conclusive evidence of the extent to which Miyagi has poisoned their populace."

Kakashi nodded.

The Third sighed tiredly then said, "it will be fine. He's been doing well with missions requiring more finesse recently. This will be a logical next step for him and you'll be better for having someone there you can agree with."

Kakashi relented with his glare. He could tolerate Maito Gai better than he could tolerate most others. Gai was predictable. He was the closest he had to a comrade now…

But the spandex.

"And it wouldn't hurt to have someone who can screw your head on right!" the aging Hokage added with a wry smile.

"I'll run through the mission information with him, I'm assuming any additional instructions are in that folder?"

The old Hokage smiled, "indeed. Subtlety is key and the time allotted is flexible. Leave Gai responsible for making contact with me to avoid being connected with any plots"

"Yes Hokage-sama,"

The went back to the disarray of his desk, "best of luck Kakashi, be care—" the small breeze that carried through his office alerted him to the fact that Kakashi was gone, "—ful."

The Hokage looked up and glared at the place Kakashi had stood.

"Punk kids don't let me finish my—"

"Hokage-sama!"

The man sighed as his young assistant Teuchi burst through the door.

Oh the business of running a village never did stop. He supposed he could get back to his papers later.

"Yes, Teuchi?"

…..

Before actually finding Gai and starting this damn mission Kakashi took the liberty of familiarizing himself with the mission specifications. The folder was immense, clearly intelligence gathered over many years from many nin, both in Konoha and Kiri. It had the 5th Mizukage's seal of approval on it as well. They were trying, at least, to uphold the truce between the nations.

The peace achieved by the third war had been tenuous at best. Konoha had lost much, not so much as the other nations had and not nearly so much as Kiri had, but much. The devastation that city had experienced was even greater than what Konoha was going through post-Kyuubi attack. It was certainly in their best interests to remain on fair ground with Konoha.

And that was being threatened by one Miyagi Hiroto.

The folder contained dozens of 'solved' murder cases and suspicious accidental death reports for civillians, shinobi, and even a few lords. Separately they would have seemed innocuous, but al together they were very disturbing.

Miyagi was taking out the Mizukage's prominent supporters.

This lead to the assumption, listed in the mission directives, that he was amassing his own force under the Mizukage's nose.

It made sense why they'd outsourced his assassination. To have an internal operative murder someone who was so apparently innocent would have left the Mizukage clawing desperately to her supporting parties. With so many of them already missing it could have led to a fatal imbalance of power in Kiri.

Miyagi seemed to be the root of an underground arms market that was amassing it's employ out of dissatisfied mist shinobi. Recently there had been a string of high profile murders beginning to take out the established hierarchy of Kirigakure. This was beyond the past decade of small support disappearances and crimes in areas of high support. It was beginning to look like a coup, and if anything, this Miyagi guy was aiming to overthrow the Mizukage and start an insurrection against the treaty of the villages.

The fact that shinobi were vanishing within the mist and not turning up as missing nin was very disturbing. In the past four month the number of shinobi lost had bled into dozens.

Any disturbance to the peace would be detrimental. Kiri and Suna had been Konoha's closest allies after the war, providing prosperous trade routes and a regular influx of missions. Konoha could not stand to lose those ties now. Not so recently after the destruction of Konoha at the flaming jaws of Kyuubi.

So the outlined mission was paramount to Konoha's future prosperity.

He understood his role. He was to infiltrate Miyagi's group and pin him for crimes of conspiracy against the treaty of the villages. Then kill him.

In the past years Miyagi had become increasingly difficult to spy on. Agents were found slain and information was lost in the chain to the Mizukage. Last month, however, a crucial piece of information was gained by Kirin in spies—Miyagi had a shameful secret indulgence.

He would send his closest out to pick up young men in bars and then bring them back to him.

For exactly what, the spies didn't know, but they could guess.

Kakashi frowned as he put the last papers he was reading down. He knew what his expectations were. He'd done this before.

It was just very dangerous, and no matter how much Kakashi wanted to admit that he didn't need the help, Gai would be essential to the success of the mission. It was too much sneaking around to risk long range communication, and too long time-wise to forego communication.

It was hard to imagine Gai keeping a character up for that long, though. That could be more dangerous than anything else. Kakashi didn't want to be neck deep in a hornets nest when Gai kicked it.

Frankly he didn't want to be neck deep in a hornets nest at all.

And, if he dared imagine Gai to keep his tongue in check, it could be pleasant to have someone whom he worked well with along for the ride. He'd never imagine it, though. Gai was a great battle partner, but Kakashi shuddered to think of how he'd perform on a mission like this.

Not to mention it was a bit humiliating for him.

The role which he was expected to play would be so awkward to have Gai watch. Gai didn't always understand subtlety or the actions that could be necessitated by missions. Gai would make it weird.

Or maybe he would be the one making it weird.

Why was it so weird?

Kakashi's frown deepened. He stood from where he'd been sitting surrounded by papers and began to organize them back into their file. He tucked it neatly away into his vest and looked at the beaten alarm clock by his bed.

It was only 7 a.m., he saw.

High time to meditate on his biggest handicap in this.

He pushed up his forehead protector and opened his other eye. There was always a strange duality about looking through both his normal and sharingan eye at the same time. It made his head hurt, so he avoided it.

Closing his normal eye he took stock of his apartment.

The sharingan spun lazily, burning chakra siphoning through the veins in his eye. This new eye manifestation allowed him all the same priveleges of his old sharingan, but there was this _thing_ about it. Like if he focussed hard enough he could do _something_, but the what had been evading him. Every time he tried to do whatever-it-was he would end up passed out in a ditch. Or his bed. Or at the bar with old Inoichi dragging his ass home mumbling about drunken young dolts.

With the time constraint of a mission now, Kakashi did not risk pushing this thing.

He looked at the fine wisps of chakra threading through his apartment. He was very skilled at keeping others out. The wisps that threaded along the creases of his walls and ceiling and floor knotted into webby nets around his door and window. Traps that would permit entry only to him. And previously Minato.

He followed the threads with his eye lazily, noting where they were fading out of existence so that he could bolster them later.

Then he stared at his plant.

Plants had chakra. It was a strange thought, but they did. The small plant didn't have much, but he could see it flowing slowly through its little planty veins.

Ok, that was enough. He yanked down his forehead protector and glanced at the sad alarm clock again.

It was almost noon, after all, and high time to find Gai.

If Kakashi remembered correctly, Gai had returned from a C rank mission last night. That meant that by now, Gai was probably doing some ridiculous training exercise to build up more youthful exuberance or whatever. Kakashi rolled his eye. Even in his mind Gai was larger than life.

But he felt a bit off about going up to Gai. He hadn't seen him much around the village since Rin and the Kumo nin. He knew enough that Gai hadn't been gravely injured against the Kyuubi and that he'd been promoted to jounin over six months ago. Had he congratulated the man? Probably not.

Better late than never though, so Kakashi set out.

But first he would go get one important item. If they were going to head out tomorrow he needed to find an appropriate replacement for his mask. There was no way Kakashi could deal with the Kiri wharf smell without covering his nose.

AN: Thanks for reading, let me know what you think!


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Welcome to the second installment of this story. I'm still fairly new at this writing thing, so any advice would be appreciated.

Konoha's central marketplace was slowly returning to the hustle and bustle that marked normal times. There were a few rows of carts and a few blocks of buildings. Apartments were being built everywhere. The tent village that had taken over one of the training fields was slowly dissipating as more and more affordable housing was becoming available. The improvements almost brought a smile to Kakashi's face. It seemed like something was going right for the city after so much wrong.

He'd never been much for positive thinking, though, so he frowned.

He started walking towards to textiles section of the market. He would need something to replace the mask on this mission. The mask helped him in many ways. It wasn't just something he could off and do without. Sometimes that made undercover missions hard, but he'd learned to cope. Surgical masks were great. Scarves, also great. This time he was thinking something a bit different.

He'd seen some people on his last mission out of the village. At first he'd thought they were women, but then he'd realized they were men. They were from Ame—the village hidden in the grass. And they were wearing the strangest head scarves. Kakashi had been confused then, but now he had to admire them. If he hadn't been specifically told where and when to find those targets, the head gear would have thrown him off. Now, he was impressed. And he was going to take their fashion sense and use it for his own good.

While he was walking through a particularly busy section of the town he began to feel a bit self-conscious. Civilians were staring at him. Not that that was a particularly new feeling, but it never ceased to amaze him how far out of control rumours could get.

Ever since he'd started taking regular missions again, it seemed like every civilian in Konoha was scared of him. They would watch him when he walked past, give him lots of space, and avert their eyes if he happened to look directly at him. Not that he was complaining about the space thing. He didn't like to be touched, but it kind of hurt. Especially when he saw mothers and fathers ushering their children away from him. Like he was some kind of monster.

But he was kind of a monster wasn't he?

The reason these rumours had been spreading, he supposed, was because of his rather ruthless approach to missions. Even though he'd left the confines of active ANBU duties he'd kept taking stupidly high-profile missions. Like his name wasn't plastered all over those goddamn Bingo Books already. At one point it felt like every week had him carving out some other unfortunate's heart.

He suppressed the urge to shudder. Thoughts of hearts were dangerous territory. It was time for a distraction.

Distractions. Not happening. How could he be so fine fighting and killing but then so weak willed after the fact? It was embarrassing.

But that was the kind of job he had to do. Not being in ANBU meant that he could fight any way he pleased. Before he'd joined ANBU he'd started learning the name copy-cat Kakashi was tagged to him. He kind of liked the moniker, and occasionally took missions during his stint in ANBU just to keep it going. But now it had taken on a different tune. With his sharingan frequently out as an option he'd come to rely on his father's old tanto. Channeling chakra into a weapon was much easier than channeling it through his body. It didn't hurt that he could move faster with it than he could while using the raikiri.

Because of the change in his modus operandi, though, people had started calling him the White Fang. Even some had started calling him revenge of the White Fang. Which had some unpleasant effects on the homefront. As the rumours spread, Kakashi had noticed more and more wariness on the part of the villagers and the surviving ninja from the time of his father.

It was clear that Obito was still rather unique in his opinions of Kakashi's father.

He focused outwards again, he was just a few booths down from the textile vendor now, so he counted his steps instead of thinking.

He made it to 14 before he walked straight into someone.

"Oh shit! Sorry man!" Genma laughed slapping Kakashi on the shoulder. Genma was so touchy, probably how he got so many ladies in his bed. Kakashi, not being a lady, flinched out of his grip. "ehe, sorry. What are ya doing here? I don't see you out much." The older Toku-Jo asked.

"Aa, just out for a bit." Kakashi said lamely. At Genma's expectant expression he continued, "…uh…you?" he asked.

Genma laughed, then started rambling, "well, I had shit luck this morning and got stuck at the missions desk today when that bangin' lady Yuugao with the purple dyed hair shows up, and damn she's a looker… you know what I mean," he wriggled his eyebrows offensively and made an obscene gesture that looked like it was running the outline of an imaginary female body before he continued. But Kakashi had tuned him out already, staring boredly at some indefinite point past Genma. Yuugao was someone he knew… he thought from ANBU. She was new, working with the swordsman. They were sleeping with each other, he could smell it on them before they left for missions. He'd never been on a mission with Yuugao, but he had gone with Hayate. Kakashi's nose had yet to be wrong about something like that, no matter how much that knowledge creeped him out. Genma looked like he was wrapping up his rant with a small, excited dance, "and I think I totally have a chance with her!"

"Talk to Hayate. Later Genma," Kakashi said with a bored look before walking past a floored Genma.

"But… wait… WHAT?" he spluttered, "how do you even know these… these THINGS?!"

Kakashi just waved over his shoulder and carried on. The textile store was on his right. He turned in to it and started brushing up and down the dingy wooden walls where there were hangings and swaths of fabrics bathed in fluorescent lights. The man at the front of the store was a very useful person to Kakashi. His name was Akira and he was pushing 90 at this point. For as long as Kakashi could remember he'd been coming to Akira with questions about sewing and fabrics.

Kakashi was not a particularly domestic person. He had his bed. He had his plant. He had a pot. And, occasionally, food that could go in said pot.

He also had his plant, if that counted.

But it had been a gift from his Eternal Rival. Something about being in the Joyous Springtime of Youthful Vigour. Which Kakashi translated to Gai being happy he was out of ANBU. For the most part.

He was beginning to think you never really left. He surreptitiously shook himself and walked purposefully over to Akira. The old man was engaged in his study of a dark green velvet in front of him. He was kneading it and stretching it and marking it with obscene orange chalk.

But the old man was not so engrossed as to miss one of his most eccentric customers! "Oh! Hatake-san! How are you? What can I help you with? Did you tear all your masks again?" He waggled a gnarled finger at the young ninja. Kakashi curved his eye upwards into his customary smile.

"Akira, it's been a while," he said.

"Too long if you ask me, I thought you'd run out of use for a wizened old bastard like me." He grunted. He pushed himself off of his chair with a wooden cane. He wandered around his back table and stood in front of Kakashi and gave him an appraising look. Then smacked him with the butt-end of his cane. "You're not eating enough. Your clothes are hanging off you!"

Kakashi frowned, "it's not that bad old man," he muttered, crossing his arms over his middle.

"I can tell these things, brat" Akira said with a stink eye learned from decades of practise. But relented when Kakashi didn't. "Okay, what do you want?"

"It's not what you think," Kakashi started lamely, scratching his wild hair.

"Oh, so you've finally learned how to sew your own damn mask-shirt abominations?"

"Ha very funny," the ninja said dryly. "Well, I have a mission and I need some fabric to make um… an undercover mask?"

Akira quirked an overgrown, gray eyebrow at him. "You want a mask? The usual's over there, go nuts, kid."

Kakashi shook his head, "no, uh, I need something a bit less scary."

"Any way you cut it people going to be suspicious of a young man in a mask, Kakashi. Just wear a scarf."

"That's what I was thinking," Kakashi said, "but less like a scarf, more like a head scarf. I saw some grass-nin wearing them a few weeks ago. I need something to flatten out my hair, cover my eye, and cover my nose."

Akira scrunched up his nose and walked right into Kakashi's personal space ninja's lone eye widened almost imperceptibly. Akira brought his knobby cane whipping up and poked Kakashi right in the forehead. "I," he began, "have exactly what you're looking for."

Kakashi sighed in relief as the old man sprang back with far too much spryness for a man with a cane. He hobbled over a few aisles and came back with a dark patterned fabric. He chucked it on the table and gestured at it. Kakashi took a long look at it. It was a deep blue background with bright green and pink swatches on it, like stylized angular flowers. The patches were large, but they were few and far between. In the expanses of blue, upon closer examination, he could see a pattern of circles, each the size of a pin head. It was barely noticeable, but the circles reflected the light just slightly different from the normal backgrounds on other fabrics. It made it look lighter, letting the white of the base fabric through. It was strangely pretty, yet despite the pink, it wasn't terribly feminine.

He noticed Akira looking at him with an expectant smile wrinkling up his face. So he decided that this would be exactly what he needed

"Aa, thank you Akira-san, this will do very well. How much will I need?"

The old man scratched his chin, disturbing the few, odd, long, gray hairs poking out. "I'd say about 2 metres will cover you. I'd ask what you're doing dressing like this, but I have a feeling it's classified." At Kakashi's one eyed smile, Akira knew his suspicions were correct. He'd lived a long life, his suspicions were often correct. "Well then, brat, that'll be…" he paused and hobbled back behind the desk and pulled out a truly abused old calculator, "680 yen"

Kakashi sighed. Old man was jacking up his prices. Though, he couldn't blame Akira. Most people were still struggling to get by, but ninja were always in demand. For that, at least, Kakashi was thankful. He pulled out the bills and passed them over and took the section of cloth Akira had cut for him. He folded it up and tucked it away into one of his pockets.

"Later, old man," he said as he turned to leave, tossing his usual wave over his shoulder.

"Come back again, brat!" Akira said, before hopping back up on the stool behind the desk and continuing his battle with the green velvet.

* * *

Kakashi had made his way quickly out of the civilian district. It was too uncomfortable in there. He thought it was kind of claustrophobic. People pressed into rows around tents and small buildings and booths. People eating lunches in clusters along construction sites. People everywhere. It had probably not been his brightest choice to come out around standard lunch break, but Kakashi didn't operate on a normal food schedule at the best of times.

Out of the noise and stink of people and eating he considered his options.

He could go and find Gai, get the briefing over with, and get on his way to this mission, or he could procrastinate. Not that Gai was someone Kakashi didn't want to see, rather, he wanted to see Gai. He'd just been avoiding the green beast a bit.

Gai had this special ability that no one else in Kakashi's life seemed to have. The hokage, his landlady, his fellow ninja, and even Akira tried and failed to get Kakashi to talk to them. They usually picked up fast enough that they weren't going to get anywhere and would drop it, either to talk about themselves or to talk about something more mundane. Gai, however, had no such system to indicate to himself that it was time to stop talking to Kakashi. As a consequence, Gai had fast become a very close person to Kakashi.

Not that Kakashi would consider him a friend, per se. Gai was more like an excitable dog that he couldn't seem to lose.

But, Kakashi had been avoiding him. He didn't want to talk to Gai or anyone. He liked his space and his quiet.

He sighed.

He would have to get this over with now. He'd already wasted nearly a whole morning. He could deal with whatever youth-rage Gai could throw at him.

Gai would probably be training. If he wasn't on a mission he was working on getting stronger. So, Kakashi reasoned that he would likely be at a training field. The team he'd been on as a genin and a chuunin liked to meet at training grounds 4, so that was where Kakashi would try first. He took a moment, then decided against trying to use his old sensei's jutsu again. He still felt a bit off from his Sharingan experiments in the morning. So he walked.

* * *

"435! 436! 437!..."

Kakashi could hear Gai well before he could see him.

"438! 439! 440!..."

When Kakashi turned the corner onto the training field Gai was in the middle of doing squat jumps. With a boulder the size of Bull on his head. He was probably going to do 500, so Kakashi waited patiently behind a tree for Gai to finish.

"441! 44-!"

Abrubtly Gai stopped, and Kakashi heard a loud crash. He almost peeked around the tree trunk, be he felt Gai's chakra signature moving towards his location at a rapid rate.

Shit! How had Gai done that? He was supposed to be terrible at this. Kakashi replaced himself with a leaf on the other side of the field. Just in time to hear Gai's booming voice, "AHA! I've got you—oh? There's no one here. How strange, I could have sword I had felt a presence here mere seconds ago!"

Now or never, Kakashi thought, "Gai… over here."

Gai turned around to face Kakashi. "Huh? Kakashi! What are you doing over there?"

Kakashi shrugged.

"Now is not the time to be cool and hip! I've been trying to find you for weeks," Gai said, loudly, then at a surprisingly normal volume, "why have you been avoiding me?"

"Maa, Gai, don't think so highly of yourself. I've been busy."

Gai's mighty brows furrowed, but he seemed to accept that excuse. He walked over to the boulder where Kakashi was also standing. "Then have you finally found time for a youthful challenge?!" Gai said pumping his fists in the air then dragging them down vehemently in front of his chest.

"No," Kakashi replied, unamused by the older jonin's antics.

Gai, stared at him blankly for a second. "Then what are you here for my rival?"

Kakashi flung a stack of papers at the green-clad wonder.

"We have a mission, read that then meet me at my place with your bag. Be ready to leave for tonight."

"Okay!"

Kakashi left, and as he was walking away he swore he heard Gai pontificating about his glorious challenge with his eternal rival. And he started to feel apprehensive about this whole ordeal. He wasn't sure that he could handle being with Gai for so long without so many distractions.

_Thanks for reading!_


End file.
